1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to software licensing and, more specifically, to a system and method for per-patient licensing of interventional imaging software.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Minimally-invasive medical procedures such as needle or catheter based ablations play an increasingly important role for therapy delivery. The benefits of these minimally invasive approaches include lower patient morbidity, faster recovery and reduced costs. These advantages come with the challenge for physicians to perform these procedures in a precise, safe and efficient way. Medical imaging technology provides physicians with visual feedback for performing these procedures, especially where direct line-of-sight is not possible.
Medical imaging includes pre-procedure image acquisition and intraoperative imaging. Different sensor systems may be employed to acquire image data. For example, sensors may be used to measure electrocardiogram (ECG) signals and respiratory motion. Systems may also track position and orientation of instruments.
Medical imaging sensors are used to collect image data, and this data may then be processed to generate the desired two or three dimensional image. Medical imaging systems include sensors for acquiring image data, computer software for processing the image data and computer hardware for executing the computer software and displaying the processed image.
In addition to facilitating minimally-invasive surgery, processed medical images may facilitate diagnosis and treatment of disease, congenital defect and injury.
The design of modern computer software for the processing of medical images has become quite complex and expensive. Developers of medical imaging systems have traditionally recouped software expenses by adding this cost to the sale price of the accompanying equipment. The sale of the medical imaging systems has traditionally included a general license to use the software in connection with the hardware. However, as image processing software evolves, it becomes increasingly difficult for software developers to recoup their investment by adding to the one-time cost of the medical imaging systems.
Moreover, adding the price of the software to the system cost often makes the system too costly for facilities with a limited caseload such as rural and community hospitals.